Machine for operating on irregularly-shaped blanks.



' E. E. LANE.

MACHINE FOR OPERATING 0N IRREGULARLY SHAPED BLANKS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 18, [9|].

Patented Apr. 15, 1919.

2 $HEET5-SHEET I E. E. LANE. MACHINE FORVOPERATING ON IRREGULARLY SHAPED BLANKS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY l8. I917- Patented Apr. 15,1919.

2 sums-sum 2.

til I ELMER E. L E, 0E SOUTH BERwIoK, MAI E, AssIeNoR, BY MEsNE ASSIGNMENTS, To

UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, or rATERsoN, NEW JERSEY, A CORPO- RATION on NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR OPERATING ON IRREGULARLY-SHAPED BLANKS.

1,eoo,c27.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patgnted A 15 1919 Application filed July 18, 1917. Serial No. 181,444.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ELMER E. LANE, a citizen of the United States, residing at South Berwick, in the county of York and State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Operating on Irregularly-ShaipedBlanks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a. full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. f l

This invention relates to machines for operating on irregularly shaped blanks and more particularly to an improved mechanism for feeding irregularly shaped shoe blanks, such as counters, box toes, shank stiffeners and the like, from a hopper to a mechanism for operating on the blanks.

A machine for skiving blanks of the type above referred to is shown. in the patent to Scott No. 969,987 patented September 13, 1910. In this machine the mechanism for operating upon the blanks comprises a die roll provided with a die cavity of the shape of the article to be produced, a pressure roll for holding the blank in the die cavity, and a skiving knife to act on the blank while held in the-die cavity. The die and pressure rolls are continuously rotated and the blanks are pushed from a hopper to the bite of the rolls by a feed slide which is intermittently operated in timed relation to the rotation of the rolls to present the blanks so as to register with the die cavity. In order that the blanks may be presented to the die determined angular position, and the pushing edge of the feed slide is shaped to maintain this angular position of the blankswhile they are being advanced to the rolls.

In the machine of the patent above referred to the position of the blanks in the hopper is determined by gages or devices which engage the frontedges and extreme ends of the blanks. Many of the irregularly shaped blanks which it is desired to operate on, however, have one or more concavely curved edges producing pointed ends or corners which often warp or curl so as to make the I the mechanism for operating on the blanks.

With this object in view a feature of the invention contemplates the provision in a machine for operating on blanks, having a feed slide to engage the rear edge of a blank and to push a blank from a hopper to the mechanism for operating thereon, of a pair of blank positioning and separating abutments arranged to engage the front concavely curved edge of the blanks at separated points intermediate their ends.

Other features of the invention consist in certain features of construction, combinations and arrangements of parts which are hereinafter described and claimed, the advantages of which will be apparentto those skilled in the art from the following descriptron.

The preferred form of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the upper portion of a blank skiving machine embodying the preferred form of the invention; Fig. 2 is a. sectional plan view of the skiving machine; Fig. 3 is a detail plan view of the improved blank separating and positioning device; Fig. 4 is a view in front elevation, partly in section,

a detail view in front elevatiomwith parts broken away, of the blank separating gate of the skiving machine showing the improved blank separating and positioning device applied thereto.

The machine illustrated in the drawings is quite similar in the construction, arrange ment and'mode of operation. of its various parts to the machine disclosed in the patent hereinbeforereferred to. In this machine the blank is fed between a positively driven die roll 10 and a pressure roll 12. The die blanks.

- sure rolls.

roll has a die cavity 14 into'which a blank is forced by the pressure roll, while the blank is being acted upon by a skiving knife 16, the cutting edge of which extends close to the line of contact of the rolls with the blank; formation in a hopper and are intermittently advanced from the hopper to the bite of the die and pressure'rolls by means of a feed slide 18. The stack of blanks is acted upon by a follower 20 which is moved downwardly in the hopper to press the stack against a feed table 22, and moved upwardly in the hopper to permit a new supply of blanks to be placed therein. The side walls of the hopper consist of a pair of gages 24 and 26, to engage the ends of the blanks in the stack, which are adjustable along the front wall 28 of the hopper to determine the transverse position of the blanks with relation to the die cavity.

The improved blank positioning and separating devices illustrated in the drawings comprise a pair of separating abutments 30 which projectrearwardly from the front wall of the hopper to engage the front edges of the blanks in the stack intermediately their ends. The abutments determine the angular position of the blanks in the hopper and this angular position should be such as to insure, that the blank will be advanced by the feed slide in the proper position to register with the die cavity. To position the rear edge of the many different forms of irregularly shaped blanks with reference to the leading edge of the feed slide the separating abutments are mounted on vertical pivots by which they may be adjusted toward and from the front wall of-the hopper to determine the angular position of the the block 32 which is secured by means of screws 34 to a gate 36 mounted at the bottom of the front wall of the hopper. The abutments are formed integral with cylindrical shanks 38 which are rotatably mounted in openings 40 in the block 32. The shanks 38 are held in the block 32 by means of a key 42 which rests on the top of the block and engages annular grooves 41% formed on the upper ends of the shanks (Fig. 4c). To hold the abutments in adjusted position, clamping blocks 46 are mounted in'the blocks 32 at the side of the shank 38 and are forced against the shanks by means of set screws 48.

The abutments 30 also serve to separate the bottom blank from the rest of the stack and prevent more than one blank at a time from being advanced to the die and pres- To accomplish this the lower faces 50 of the abutments are normally separated from the feed table 22 by a distance substantially equal to the thickness of a blank. To permit the abutments to yield so The blanks are supported in stack The abutments are supported in.

yieldingly pressed toward the table 22 by means of compression springs 51 (Fig: 1); The. springs 51 (only one being shown) are mounted at each end of the gate between the lower edge of the hopper wall 28 and the upper edge of the gate 36. as the blanks are moved under the abutments by the feed slide the springs 56 will tend to flatten the blanks upon the table 22.

Irregularly shaped blanks, such as shank pieces and box toes indicated in full and dotted lines respectively in Fig. 3, often have one or more concavely curved edges producing pointed ends or corners which tend to curl or warp and for this reason can not always be positionedproperly by blank engaging devices, such for instance as those disclosed in Patent No. 969,987, which have heretofore been used. The improved positioning abutments of the present invention, however, are located opposite the center of the blanks so that the points of contact of the abutments with the front edge of the blank are removed far enough from the end of theblankas not to engage the portion of the blank which would be curled or warped. Also the follower 20 acts on the central portion of the blanks in the stack to flatten them upon the table 22and the abutments are arranged to engage the portion of the blank which. is flattened by the follower.

To facilitate feeding blanks which have warped or curled corners the gate employed with the improved positioning and separating abutments is constructed as shown in Fig. 5'. As indicated in this view the central portion 52 of the gate. adjacent the position of the separating abutments has its lower face 54 in substantially the same plane as the lower face 50 of the separating abutments. The face 54 cooperates with the face 50 of the separating abutments to flatten the blanks upon the table 22 as the blanks are advanced to the die and pressure rolls. At each side of the central portion 52 the lower face of the gate is cut away at 56 to provide clearance to permit the curled ends of the blanks to freely pass under the gate.

l/Vhile the stack of blanks is being moved downwardlyin the hopper by the follower 20, the lowermost blanks of the stack pass between the beveled ends of the abutments position bythe ends of the abutments30 and if the blanks of the stack areslightly' displaced in the direction away from the front wall of the hopper-they will be moved against'the ends of the abutments by the beveled wall 58. In this way each of the blanks will be in proper angular position for engagement with the leading edge of the feed slide when it comes into contact with the table 22.

While the improved blank feeding mechanism is illustrated and described as applied to a skiving machine, it is not limited to use in such a machine and may be readily embodied in practically any type of machine for operating upon irregularly shaped blanks.

Having thus described the preferred form of the invention what is claimed as new is:

1. A machine for operatin on irregularly shaped blanks having, in com ination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks in stacked formation, blank feeding mechanism including a feed slide for engaging the rear edge of a blank, and a pair of blank positioning and separating abutments arranged to engage the front concavely curved edges of the blanks at separated points intermediate their ends.

2. A machine for operatin on irregularly shaped blanks having, in com ination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks in stacked formation, blank feeding mechanism including a slide for engaging the rear edge of a blank, and a plurality of separating abutments arranged to engage the front concavely curved edges of the blanks at separated points and adjustable to determine the angular position of differently shaped blanks with respect to the leading edge of the feed slide.

3. A machine for operating on irregularly shaped blanks having, in combination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks in stacked formation, blank feeding mechanism including a feed slide for separately advancing blanks to said operating mechanism, a yieldingly mounted gate at therear of said operating mechanism, and a pair of separating abutments mounted upon and projecting rearwardly from said gate to separate the bottom blank from the stack.

4. A machine for operating on irregularly shaped blanks having, in combination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks in stacked formation,

blank feeding mechanism including a feed slide for separately advancing blanks to said operating mechanism, a yieldingly mounted gate at the rear of said operating mechanism, and a pair of separating abutments mounted on vertical pivots in said gate and adjustable for positioning differently shaped blanks with respect to the leading edge of the feed slide. a

5. A machine for operating on irregularly shaped blanks having, in combination, mechanism for operatin on a blank, means for supporting blanks 1n stacked formation, a feed slide for engaging the rear edge of a blank, a yieldingly mounted gate having a pressing face to bear upon the central portion of a blank as it is fed, and cut away portions at each side of said face to permit the ends of a blank to pass freely under said gate, and a plurality of blank positioning and separating abutments mounted on said gate to engage the front edge of the blanks at separated points intermediate their ends.

6. A machine for operating on irregularly shaped blanks having, in combination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks in stacked formation, a feed slide to engage the rear edge of a blank, and a plurality of separating abutments to engage the concavely curved fiont edge of the blanks, one of which is adjustably mounted on a vertical pivot.

7. A machine for operatin on irregularly shaped blanks having, in com ination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks 1n stacked formation, a feed slide to engage the rear edge of a blank, and a pair of separating abutments, to engage the concavely curved front edge of the blanks, adjustably mounted on vertical pivots.

8. A machine for operating on irregularly shaped blanks having, in combination, mechanism for operating on a blank, means for supporting blanks in stacked formation, a feed slide to engage the rear edge of a blank and push the blank to said operating mechanism, a plurality of separating abutments provided with blank positionin bevel surfaces to engage the front edge 0 the blanks, an inclined blank positioning guide to engage the rear edge of the blanks, and means for forcing the stack of blanks down between the separating abutments and guide to position the blanks for thefeed slide.

ELMER E. LANE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

